Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) (155 page)

"The Evil One?" Ninsianna stammered.

Lerajie held out his arm so she could take his elbow. She shot Apausha a look which communicated
'help me,
' but the lizard was in no position to do anything, for he was just as much a prisoner as
she
was.

"This is great news!" Lerajie's pink-speckled wings fluttered like a butterfly which had just lit upon a flower filled with nectar. "Eligor said to make sure you understand that everything hinges on healing Lucifer's lover."

“His lover?” Ninsianna spat. “Who'd he go and break now?"

"That's just it," Lerajie said. He leaned closer to her ear as he tugged her down the hall. "It's not a woman. It's another
man.
He comes from the exact same village as
you
."

"Assur?"

Lerajie turned a corner and practically wrenched her arm out of her socket as he jerked her to a halt, though not intentionally. Six armed Angelics, every one of them men who'd developed attachments to a woman in the harem ran past them, their expressions intense as they slipped their firesticks onto their hips. Something big was happening, and the very energy of the place had shifted.

"Assur?" Lerajie said. "Oh, I had no idea what your village is called. All I know is Eligor sent the man’s name."

“Who?”

Lerajie shepherded her down the hall, glaring at anyone who dared get too close to her.

“Eligor said his name is Jamin.”

“Jamin?” Ninsianna stopped. “What's
he
doing here?”

While Jamin had turned her over to the Evil One, since that day there had been neither sight nor mention of him. When she’d asked the Angelics, none of them had ever even heard of her former fiancé.

“They are …
lovers
?” Ninsianna asked.

A bit of light-headedness made her feel as though she'd imbibed too much beer. Jamin? And another … man? Not even if She-who-is had sent her a vision declaring it would be thus, not for all the universe would she have believed
that
eventuality would come true!

"Yeah,” Lerajie said. “He dragged us all the way back to Earth to buy him out of Sata’anic conscriptment. Cost him a pretty penny, too.” Lerajie jerked her down another one of the long, labyrinthal corridors which doubled back upon itself and seemed to make no sense. “He and Lucifer are cut from the same cloth, if you ask me. Eligor said that Lucifer himself fought his way into a battle,
alone,
to retrieve him after he was wounded.”

“What battle?”

“Oh? The Sata’an Empire just invaded your village,” Lerajie said.

"Invaded?" Ninsianna sputtered. “I thought your Alliance was the enemy of the Sata’an Empire?”

“I thought so, too,” Lerajie said. His brows furrowed together, perplexed. “I don’t know what to think anymore. I've just been keeping my mouth shut and looking for an opportunity to get you off of this ship.”

"Wait a minute?" Ninsianna cast off his grip. "Why would I help either one of them? Jamin betrayed me, and Lucifer had my husband killed!" She backed up against the wall. There were two guards in the hallway she did not know, and they both eyed her, more curious than hostile.

"Because your husband is still
alive
," Lerajie said excitedly. "Somebody took out the fuel induction carburetor of the subspace ramjet with a pulse rifle. Lucifer promised that if you save his lover, he will free you. He will let you go back to your village and ask the lizards to leave you alone."

Little of what Lerajie said made any sense, but hope and terror blended together into a fine mess of emotions; love and hatred, freedom and apprehension.

"Why? Why would Lucifer let me go?"

"Because he
caught
him," Lerajie laughed. "Don't you see? For two hundred years every female in the galaxy has tried to catch the heart of the alpha-male, and it turns out it wasn't a
she
he searched for, but a
he
who was his one true mate!"

Angelic's believed that all spirits searched for their one true mate, a spirit who would bond with them and make the journey through eternity at their side. Ninsianna was too pragmatic to believe in such nonsense, but Lerajie believed it, and so did every other Angelic on this ship. It was a belief system she'd manipulated to entice these men to feel empathy for the women in the harem.

“Lucifer is incapable of love,” Ninsianna snorted.

“That's what
we
thought," Lerajie said, "but it turns out we were wrong. Lucifer went into a firefight, unarmed, to retrieve your young chieftain when he fell, and he took eight arrows in the wings to carry him out of there rather than fly to safety himself."

Her husband would rescue
her
from a firefight, of course, but she had to agree that that type of behavior did not seem typical for the Evil One.

"It's some sort of trick," Ninsianna said. "Jamin must hold some strategic value for him?"

Lerajie sighed.

“Sometimes, you just have to accept love in whatever form the goddess gives it to you,” Lerajie said. “Isn’t that what you’ve been telling us for the past few months?”

Her manipulative words … come back to haunt her…

“My first instinct is to tell Lucifer to go to hell and let Jamin die," Ninsianna said. "Both have caused great misery to my people." She gave him an indignant sniff. "I shall think it over."

Lerajie wheeled on her. His fingers dug into her biceps as he pressed her against the wall, his blue-green eyes sparkling with anger.

"Their shuttle is due in ten minutes,” Lerajie said. “You’d better have your answer then, because I can tell you right now,
Chosen One,
if that man dies, the raid the Sata’an Empire has launched upon your village will be nothing compared to Lucifer's wrath when he avenges his lover's death!”

“But
you
attacked
us
,” Ninsianna said. “Of course we defended ourselves.”

“Right now,” Lerajie said, “the lizards are just trying to quash your husband's army so the Sata’an Empire can annex your wheat fields. Lucifer doesn't have a lot to do with that, or care, other than the fact his lover wanted his village back and Lucifer was inclined to give it to him. But I've served Lucifer a long time, Ma'am. He ain't been right in the head lately, that I’ll agree. But when he's pissed, the man pursues his payback with vengeance that not even
you
can fathom. If Lucifer’s lover dies, he will strip every female of child-bearing age off of your planet and then he will wipe your village right off of the map until not even a trace of it exists to remind him of his loss."

They reached the infirmary. Lerajie left her at the door.

"Doctor Halpas is a good man," Lerajie said. "Zepar ordered us to keep your people segregated from his patients
.
"

Ninsianna slipped inside the room. Three Angelics rushed about, all of them men, all of them with the blond hair and white wings that every Angelic possessed with the exception of her husband.

Her husband…

The reality of Lerajie’s words began to sink in. Mikhail was still alive? Why didn't she feel anything? Why did she, in fact, almost feel a little angry? Apprehensive? Sulky? Was it because she had let go of him and begun to move on to different goals? Goals that involved a far wider scale than the tiny village of Assur? No. She was nervous, that was all.

A white-winged Angelic approached her. He was an older man, refined, and if he'd been human she might have guessed late fifties, though amongst Angelics, she knew he must be far older to have so much gray mixed into his blond. In his hand he held heart-listener and a tray with assorted of metal implements.

“Aha! You must be Ninsianna! I had no idea we had a human healer on the ship. I am Doctor Halpas. I have just spent the last ten minutes listening to Ruax sing your praises!"

Doctor Halpas’ face was sincere, and his eyes were filled with that same authority she associated with her Mama. She could see why the Evil One would want to keep this man unaware of her existence.

"I'm not sure what assistance I can give," Ninsianna said, "but the man who is injured? Once upon a time I knew him."

"A patient’s will to live is an important aspect of any triage situation," Doctor Halpas said. "Especially in a frightening situation such as a primitive culture’s first exposure to modern medicine. I will place you at his head and hopefully it will reassure him.”

He took her by the shoulders and led her into the healer’s room.

“But before we begin,” Halpas continued, “we have to get you scrubbed up to prevent the spread of germs. Just follow that nurse into the washing station and we will get you changed into some surgical threads."

Germs. The tiny animals which Mikhail had explained were the true cause of most illnesses, the substance she’d always perceived as a type of putrid green infection. It was the same energy she associated with the Evil One. No germs! She scrubbed her arms with the soap which burned, determined that no
germs
would attach themselves to her body! One of the nurses handed her a blue dress. It gave her trouble because it had not been designed for a woman who did not possess a pair of wings.

As she dressed her head spun, and in her mind she kept asking why.
Why why why why why?
Why had She-who-is sent premonitions she would be captured, and then done absolutely nothing to prevent it? Why send her here to heal the women? Why send her to manipulate Lucifer's men into falling in love with them? Why?

Because she was supposed to -
be-
here, that was why. Here. She was supposed to be
here.
Surrounded by allies right in the middle of the Evil One’s stronghold.

From the other side of the curtain the door slammed open and the room filled with the sound of raised voices as a group of people argued.

"It's better if you wait outside, Sir," Doctor Halpas said.

"I'm not leaving him."

Ninsianna's heart palpitated at the sound of compulsion contained within that voice.

"But you will simply be in the way," Doctor Halpas said.

"I'm not leaving him," Lucifer said. "And you do not possess the rank to order me to go."

A metallic object clattered onto the floor as the people in the room positioned the wounded where he needed to go. The sterile, white room, the bright lights and peculiar instruments, the stench of antiseptic, and the fact the healers possessed wings instead of carried spears made no difference in a house of healing. These were the sounds she had grown up with, the sounds of a band of warriors carrying in a wounded comrade, and the familiarity of those sounds fortified her in stark juxtaposition to the terror in her heart.

"Very well, then," Doctor Halpas said. "But you will need to stay out of the way."

Ninsianna grabbed at the curtain to prevent herself from collapsing onto the floor. Lucifer. Was here? And so was she. And they wanted her to help him? How? How could she do this? How could she face the man who was the incarnation of all that was evil?

She peeked through the curtain. Lucifer stood before her, exactly as he'd looked before, impossibly tall, beautiful, and white, but instead of a sneer, the expression he wore was frantic. She could still sense that crushing darkness all around him which fed upon the emotions of others, but it could not get in. It could not get in, and it was angry!

Lucifer bent and whispered something into Jamin's ear. Tears welled into Ninsianna’s eyes. His expression so tender it reminded her a bit of Mikhail. She could not
see
the compulsion that Lucifer whispered to his lover, but she could
feel
it. She could
feel
Lucifer channel the light of She-who-is, the light that she, herself had been cut off from, as he pleaded with his lover to live. By cutting off her ability to see the light, the Evil One had inadvertently forced her to feel her way into the dark, and with her mother's gift of empathy, she could
feel
that point of light, buried deep within the darkness, as Lucifer took what little light he had and gave it to his lover.

Something invisible moved against her legs. Jumping. Excited. A different darkness had followed Jamin onto this ship, had trailed him for months, and had understood that Jamin was its best chance to find her again. The Dark Lord’s shadow cat licked her legs, overjoyed to find her, and
she,
for once, did not cringe. As it touched her, it reminded her of the Dark Lord’s words.

‘How can you heal this wound if you fear the dark?’

Ninsianna’s terror disappeared. She was more than just a healer. She was a shaman, descended from Lugalbanda, a warrior-shaman so powerful he could reach right out and stop the heart of his enemies, and she, Ninsianna, had been
Chosen
by She-who-is herself. It was not the light she must look to, but pierce the darkness to find the soul which Lucifer had sold unto the devil.